A simple, rapid, specific and reliable high-performance liquid chromatographic assay of meloxicam in human plasma has been developed using a C18 reversed-phase analytical column. Reversed-phase chromatography was conducted using a mobile phase of 0.02 potassium dihydrogen phosphate (adjusted to pH 2.7 with phosphoric acid)-acetonitrile-triethylamine (35:65:0.05, v/v) with UV detection at 354 nm. The drug in human plasma was deproteinized using a combination of methanol and chloroform. This method is simple, rapid and consistent with a high recovery of meloxicam in human plasma ranging from 93.29 to 111.09%. Regression analysis for the calibration plot for plasma standards obtained for the drug concentrations between (25-4000) ng/mL indicated excellent linearity (r ≥ 0.9997). The proposed method was applied to study the bioequivalence between Mobic (original) and Melocam (generic) products. The study was conducted on using two tablets (4 × 7.5 mg) of each of the commercial product and the reference standard in a two-way open randomized crossover design involving 20 volunteers. Area under the concentration-time curve, peak concentration (C(max)) and time to reach C(max) were 72,868.61 ng h/mL, 2133.93 ng/mL and 4.06 h for Mobic, and 78,352.52 ng h/mL, 2525.18 ng/mL and 3.61 h for Melocam. Two C(max) were discovered in the pharmacokinetic profiles which confirm enterohepatic recirculation.
Keywords: HPLC determination; bioequivalence; human plasma; meloxicam; pharmacokinetics.
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